calories and climbing

[assmonkey]

I sometimes use a heart rate monitor that claims to measure calories based on your sex, weight and heart rate. I've never worn it on a climb, but I did wear it once while mountain biking (mostly pushing) to the top of the rainier express at Crystal Mountain and down again. The calories worked out to just over 1,000 per hour on average. I weigh 175 lbs.

 

This is the only accurate way to get this kind of information. I bought a HRM last year based on the advice provided at the Twight training seminar. $99 on one of the bike websites (pricepoint.com, supergo.com) will get you a decent HRM. Caveat emptor: Cheaper HRMs won't have the calorie counting feature.

 

Recent assmonkey figures (approx.):

1 hour MTB: 1400 kCal

1 hour road ride: 1200 kCal

2 hour hike (tiger with 40#): 2000 kCal

1 hour lifting weights: 660 kCal

1 hour climbing gym: 800 kCal

Emmons route (Schurman to Schurman): 12000 kCal

 

Warning, purchasing an HRM may turn you into a "training geek."

 

- a s s m n k e y

 

Edited to include , because I fucking love s.

Edited August 3, 2004 by assmonkey

[layton]

I was guessing 6000 cal for a long day in the Mtns, and 8000 cal for an epicly long day in the mountains.

No way can you replenish that. I'm just curious b/c I know i can't possibly eat enought to replace the total calorie loss and my body fat is very low so I get real curious where that extra fuel comes from. can somebody help me type, i'm getting tired.

[Dru]

you are probably burning muscle mass. i know i get that ketosis taste in my mouth after a long hard day of slogging.

[Gary_Yngve]

I was guessing 6000 cal for a long day in the Mtns, and 8000 cal for an epicly long day in the mountains.

No way can you replenish that.

 

And how many more cals for shivering through the cold, unplanned bivy?

[layton]

Good question!?

I know that shivering is the MOST efficient way to exercise, and burns more calories than any activity.

[jon]

Most of your energy during climbing comes from fat stores, BUT your body cannot use your fat stores unless you have carbs in your system. You can replenish 8000 calories, it's just a matter of whether you are willing to carry it.

[assmonkey]

Read this book , and train for long days. If you increase your anaerobic threshold (and thereby the efficiency of your body), you can go harder and longer on less reserves. A fat man like me will burn 1200 calories in an hour and ride at an average speed (road bike) of say, 17 mph. Lance Armstrong will burn the same amount of calories (more efficiently, I might add) and average 27 mph.

 

Aren't you in dental school or something? You should know this shit.

 

- a s s m n k e y

Edited August 3, 2004 by assmonkey

[layton]

damn acetyl-CoA

 

Hey, don't go selling any ideas here, cuz I've already patented the, "Mike Layton Shiver Bivy Diet."

It'll be the latest rage in weight loss. "Eat all you want and anything you want...just as long as you exert three times as many calories as you can possilby replenish. Then melt the fat away by sleeping out in the cold."

 

"Come visit my Shiver Bivy Resort in the beautiful Canadian Rockies," the add continues, "fly over the gorgeous landscape where our specialists will drop you off in the middle of nowhere without shelter or nearly enough food. You can request to be dropped far enough away from the road that you can have one, two, even three nights out alone in the cold!"

[matt_warfield]

Layton, I think your estimates of a big day's expenditure are fine. The only accurate way to assess it, as assmonkey discussed, is to measure heart rate or respirations. Moving around the mountains isn't like the controlled conditions of scientific tests. Your body is the best instrument at counting calories but it won't tell you the number, it just gives the energy (or not). There are short term and long term reserves that get trained endurance athletes through the day. And even a low fat athlete can give some up since 1% of a 150 lb. person is 5,000 calories.

 

Sedentary bodies know where to put it. Endurance athletes' bodies know where to get it and when.

[lunger]

i mighta prompted mike's Q by not bringing a shite-ton of food on our last trip. mistakes: packed hastily and didn't research to fully understand the scale of our project. more often than not (particularly solo) i bring way too much food and pack a bunch extra home. there have been exceptions but even when going too light i've never bonked hard. in this instance, his generosity prob. saved me from crashing. (undoubtedly from the goodness of his heart--mike: "i don't give a s#!+ about you, just want to ensure my partner has enough food/sleep to do the climb" ). at any rate, in the future i'll always err on the surplus side.

 

i will usu. eat mass quantities the couple days before a big outing. i suppose this helps, but reading above sounds like some min. amt of carbs are necessary to tap those stores. wonder if any of you can share your strategies re: prior loading; timing, what kinds of food, etc. ?

 

my pops still goes into the mountains for a week+ bringing nothing but a few packets of ramen and a bag of doritos, and planning on berry grazing. his expenditures are less than an epic day of climbing (he does cover ground every day), but this has always amazed me nonetheless. i call him Camel.

[layton]

how about just bringing a snowmobile suit and a bag of flour?

[Dru]

how many calories in a roasted snaffle

 

[lunger]

snowmobile suit, eh? is that a twight-style action suit/fruity pebbles shortcut?

[layton]

more of a Waterman gear list

[Bug]

how many calories in a roasted snaffle

 

According to The Dieter's Calorie Counter, one domesticated rabbit, meat only,4oz

roasted = 175

stewed = 234

stewed diced = 288

[Bronco]

You guys are way off base here. Everyone knows nowadays it's the carbohydrates, not the calories, duh.

[Macson]

I wonder what the act of dicing does to cause an increase of 54 calories in rabbit meat? Does this only work with rabbit? If I'm trying to bulk up can I dice other foods to increase their calories? Or maybe just choose not to dice, if I want to loose weight?

[Dru]

maybe you could puree it instead and have a snaffle smoothie. skim hair off the top before drinking

[JoshK]

If I plan on going out for a few hard days I'll try to overeat a bit before hand. It seems I start burning into muscle after the first day anyway When I lifted my ass off and ate like a linebacker I still could only gain a few pounds and it was hard at that.

 

I'll notice after coming back from a very hard climb I am much colder cause I'm a skinny lil' bitch.

[Bug]

I gain a pound if I smell a truffle. Getting out in the mountains is the best way to burn it off. 6000 calories a day is probably an average for me. A long trip in the cold will burn much more especially when donning headlamps and skiing into the night. Eating sufficient protein and supplements afterwards is also important to building muscle and maintaining the burn for days after.

[Norman_Clyde]

Re: burning more calories at altitude: up to a point you have to work harder to exert the same energy, but once you're up really high, you can't burn the same calories because there is not enough OXYGEN. This is one of the reasons why 8000 m. climbers not using supplemental oxygen have a higher risk of frostbite. Your metabolic furnace barely stays lit at that altitude.

[cj001f]

more of a Waterman gear list

You forgot the Crisco

[Chad_A]

http://www.pmru.org/safetyed/files/2-AerobicRequire.pdf

 

Maybe this would provide a basis for some insight? Saw this a while ago, while looking at the safety education page.

[olyclimber]

Most of your energy during climbing comes from fat stores, BUT your body cannot use your fat stores unless you have carbs in your system.

 

Now that carbs cause cancer we're all dead. Time for the Chet Atkins diet.

 

[layton]

I'm on the Rowin Atkinson Diet.